Does anybody work for or run a small business MSP? {GFI Max Edition}

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Does anybody work for or run a small business MSP? {GFI Max Edition}

Jesus Stick: Dec 14, 2004; Bomb Hills, Not Countries

I work at an MSP, and my only contribution to this thread is that I hate LabTech with a passion.

My company moved from n-able (Awesome at monitoring, getting better at management) to LabTech (Better management tools, THE WORST loving MONITORING EVER, cheaper) and it's been a nightmare for my clients.

gently caress LabTech. We're even moving to LogicPro for monitoring.

EDIT: Here's my most recent e-mail to the team about it. http://i.imgur.com/5M204.jpg

Jesus Stick fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Mar 21, 2012

# ¿ Mar 20, 2012 23:57

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 09:32

Jesus Stick: Dec 14, 2004; Bomb Hills, Not Countries

Consolidated Ed posted:

Agreed. My company is looking to transition to an MSP-type flat-rate model for existing (and new) customers, and I think it'd be useful to compare notes.

On another note: does anyone here have definite opinions on ConnectWise or AutoTask for IT workflows (pro or con)? I've already asked two people about them outside of the thread, but I'd love to hear from anyone else who's used these products, for ticketing and the like.

If you spend the time to configure ConnectWise how you really want it for workflows, it is an amazing tool. With all the latest releases, we think, "Wow, we didn't even know we needed that, but it's awesome"

# ¿ Jun 25, 2012 15:59

Jesus Stick: Dec 14, 2004; Bomb Hills, Not Countries

Trinitrotoluene posted:

We use teamviewer as an MSP and it works fantastically well. We have literally one click access to all users; from knowing just their name I can have one click access to their PC in under 5 seconds.

How many companies/users do you support?

Sounds like a nightmare

# ¿ Jul 16, 2012 04:20

Jesus Stick: Dec 14, 2004; Bomb Hills, Not Countries

What do you guys do for smaller clients who may not need a server? My company is trying to figure out an initiative to get servers out of smaller (5-10 user) companies who can use mostly hosted applications (Office 365, Quickbooks Online, etc.) We use LabTech, and could try to script as much as possible.

I personally hate the idea. Things we're trying to suss out include:

-User Management: Local user accounts on each PC sound like a mess. Alternatively, Azure is an option, depending on how well we can integrate it with other services.
-Printer Management: I literally have almost no experience with workgroups, but I have to figure printers have some sort of workgroup manageability. If not workgroups, then we have to find a way to map each computer to each printer by creating IP ports.
-File Storage: We're a Dropbox for Business reseller, and if we could integrate this with Azure, that'd be awesome
-DNS/DHCP: Probably just handed off to the SonicWALLs we deploy
-Wireless Authentication: Our standard now is SonicPoints through SonicWALLs authenticating with RADIUS to the DCs. Obviously, that would be gone.
-Scanning: Would either need to rely on scan to e-mail for everything (which I loving loathe) or set up scan paths for each user to their PC

This all seems very low-end IT and not a way I want to go, but for some reason, we want to keep these clients around. Anyone else have any experience in this regard?

# ¿ May 14, 2014 22:49

Jesus Stick: Dec 14, 2004; Bomb Hills, Not Countries

Caged posted:

Two Server 2012 R2 DCs in Azure in a Virtual Network, connected back to the main site over a VPN. These can do DHCP (via DHCP relay) and DNS. That gives you a 'real' AD that you can use for Office 365, Dropbox, RADIUS etc. Keep a NAS on site for local file storage, scan destinations etc - again this will be AD bound.

Print directly to each printer using the printer hostname. Or look to something like Bonjour so it literally adds itself.

You're saying use the two DCs across all my clients?

# ¿ May 15, 2014 00:02

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 09:32

Jesus Stick: Dec 14, 2004; Bomb Hills, Not Countries

bimmian posted:

Words

This is basically my stance, and the position I was taking in the kickoff meeting for this initiative. If we HAVE to figure out a way to cut IT costs for small clients, my idea is this:

HP MicroServer
Windows Server Essentials 2012

Between the above, which would go for roughly $2000, and Office 365, Dropbox for Business, we can cut a TON of cost for our clients while still being able to provide domain services. If we can use the DC to integrate all services into using the one account, clients are going to loving love it. I also think that we don't even sell the hardware to the client, but provide it as a service and sell it to the them if they ever want to leave.

I agree that if we try to use LabTech to customize server/domain-less environments, it will end up costing us in the long run. If we can get something simple like my solution in, these clients would essentially just be easy revenue because they already have very few tickets and a high effective bill rate.

# ¿ May 15, 2014 19:20

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Does anybody work for or run a small business MSP? {GFI Max Edition}